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A few months ago our friends from Southern California visited and I decided to bring my camera on our adventure through Portland. Of course, we visited all the tourist spots for every photo opp. We started the day at the "Keep Portland Weird" sign street art then we enjoyed Stumptown Coffee in the Ace Hotel lobby. After buying a few books from Powell's, we drove 20 minutes north to Cathedral park. The night ended around the dinner table at Mae Ploy's on Alberta Street, which by the way serves bottomless cups of thai iced tea. Talk about heaven on earth!

Anyway, I love getting to share with our friends all our favorite places and reasons why we love living in Portland. We love calling this place our home and finally feeling settled into our rhythm of life here in this city.

(Sorry Madison that it's taken this long for me to post this blog! Love you & miss you girly!)

Yours truly,

Jayna

PS - My friends are gorgeous! And I can't believe how much my hair has grown since these pictures.

Two weeks ago I cleaned out my closet for some Spring cleaning and donated two trash bags full of clothes I haven't worn in 2 years or I felt like I didn't have a need for them anymore. Now, my closet space has increased and I've been loving the simpler life. I really hope as the year goes on and the seasons change that I keep up with this lifestyle of letting go of things (clothes) I don't need anymore. I know that I still have way more than I need. But it's a process that I'm willing to learn about and work through.

Lately, I've been pinning minimal and neutral outfits for all four seasons. I've noticed while shopping that I've been looking passed all the frilly, colorful things and head straight for the greys, tans, whites, and blacks. I just really love the idea of having less so I want my clothes to represent that same idea.

This past week I found a gift card to F21 just lying around (like, how could I have missed this?). Finding it was like Christmas all over again! Now that I've gotten rid of clothes, I've been thinking about what I really want to have in my closet. The Essentials you could say. Although F21 doesn't have the best quality in clothes, I think some of their newest products are actually worth investing in. For instance, the faux black leather slip on shoes are comfortable, feel durable, and is a cheaper alternative to the popular Steve Madden slip on. As a shopper of sales racks and clearance items, I feel it's really important to read the description about your clothes before you purchase them or feel if the materials are quality or not.

Anyway, I thought it would be cool to give you all a tiny peek into my shopping bag from F21, and to give you a sense of how my closet looks like now that I've gotten rid of a few "colorful" things.

What I bought:

1. Faux Black Leather Slip on shoes

2. Navy blue and cream striped baseball tee

3. BRB graphic tee

4. Cream turtle neck sweater

5. Cropped black knit sweater

6. Silver and gold geo necklace

I'm super happy about my recent purchases and can't wait to be a grandma in my turtle neck sweater. It's like an infinity scarf built in to your sweater. It's pure genius! Also, if you're wondering where our bed's comforter is from, we bought it at Marshalls!

Thanks for stopping by! This is a different post and I'm glad you stuck around to read the whole thing.

The weather has been so great here in Portland this past week that everyone's forgotten it was still "winter." I've already seen a lot of guys and gals rocking their shorts and tank tops even when the temperature is at a high of 66 degrees. To this born and raised Hawaii girl, I'm still shivering in my sweater and pants. Kudos to you Portlanders who know what's up with when the Sun is.

This past weekend, our friends Jonathan and David visited PDX all the way from SoCal. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE when our friends are in town. Now all of them just need to move here and stay here forever. But while they were here for their 5-day stay, we did a bunch of the touristy things every person visiting must check off of their to-do list - Powell's, Salt & Straw, Food trucks, 23rd Street, and a HIKE!

We were all invited to go on a Saturday morning hike in Mt. Hood National Forest with some staff from Multnomah University (c/o of Ashlee M. Kildiszew, the most popular chica I know). We trekked the 6-miles of Tom Dick & Harry Mountain Hike to see the breath-taking (literally, I was out of breath) view of Mt. Hood and Mirror Lake. I brought my trusty camera and a new lens that I bought to document our experience. And I’m so happy I did!

Guys, I hate cardio. I’m a yogi and my favorite pose is shavasana- I belong on a mat! The people we went on this hike with are actual hikers who do it often, so naturally, I was left in the dust. Fortunately for me, I was able to stop and smell the roses. Or in this case, the fresh air of the trees and soak in all the beautiful scenery.

When we finally got to the top of the mountain, every rock that I tripped over and every icy path I slid on was all worth it. The sun was out and Mt. Hood was gorgeous in all her snowy goodness. God is so good and He created a beautiful place for us to enjoy.
I made a short video of our hike and took a bunch of photos. So, enjoy all of it! Be sure to watch the video in HD!

I hope you get the chance this week to get outside and enjoy the beauty of God in the trees, in the birds, in the wild flowers! All we have to do is choose to get up and go!